The incident involving Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 has sparked a lot of controversy in recent times. Several videos showed that the duo did not shake hands after the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals. A debate followed and reports surfaced that both of them have unfollowed each other on Instagram. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri was asked about how he will deal with a similar situation and his response was quite straightforward.
“You have player X and player Y. Player X is a great Indian player, former captain, legend. Player Y is also a great Indian player, former captain, still playing, legend. X is now mentoring one team, Y is batting beautifully for the other team. X and Y feel like something happened and do not like each other now. They were mean to each other. Y holds a grudge against X, X holds a gudge against Y. And the teams after the game want to shake hands. Between X and Y, somebody has tried to avoid the handshake or missed the handshake. And bas ho gaya, they didn’t want to talk to each other. Would you talk to X and Y and give them some advice on life,” Shastri was asked.
“Depends on what my relationship is. If I don’t want to talk, I’ll just go past. But at the end of it, when you go and sit down, you feel that there’s always some room to grow up, no matter how old you are,” Shastri said during an interview on ESPNCricinfo.
Earlier, former Australia cricketer Shane Watson didn’t directly comment on what transpired between Ganguly and Kohli, he did admit that there was ‘fire in the belly’ of the RCB batter.
“It could be rumor-mongering, but I’m not sure. So, it’s not something I want to get involved in,” Watson said on ‘Grade Cricketer’ before bursting into laughter, as he touched upon the Kohli-Ganguly subject.
“But there was definitely some fire in Virat’s belly, that’s for sure. For an opposition point of view, that’s the last thing you need as well. Virat, when he’s like that, that’s when he’s at his absolute best. Whatever reason that was, I’m not exactly sure,” Watson asserted.
The Kohli-Ganguly saga has remained unresolved ever since the former’s exit as the captain of the Indian team in all three formats of the game. Not long after Kohli was replaced by Rohit Sharma as India’s skipper across formats, Ganguly also made way for Roger Binny as the president fo the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Both Ganguly and Kohli have had contrasting views on how the story of the latter’s exit as the captain of the Indian team unfolded. About the ‘no-handshake’ matter after the DC vs RCB game, neither of the two has yet shed light on the matter.
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